Mabel is in the nursing home
By Fred Owens
Laurie has been visiting Mabel in the nursing home since she broke her hip. Mabel lives across the street by herself and she is getting frail at age 98. She lives by herself and doesn't drive. I see her in the mornings using her walker to go out and get the newspaper in the driveway. She was five feet ten inches tall, she says, but now she is bent over. Her health is pretty good otherwise with no issues as far as I know, eats well, sleeps well, gets lonely sometimes. But I've told her more than once, Mabel you have two empty bedrooms in your house. You could rent one of those rooms to someone who could do a few chores. You don't need to be mopping the floor anymore. But she won't do that and sure enough she fell by herself two months ago and broke her hip, she was lying on the floor and lucky she had her cell phone with her.... Rory, her son and only child, insisted she keep that handy.
Rory lives in Carpinteria and plays tennis. He is in the construction business and makes a good living. He is divorced and has a grown daughter Abby who lives in the area. Mabel cooks dinner for Rory every Sunday and sometimes Abby comes. She likes to read books. If she runs out of books she will call Laurie and ask her if she has any to borrow. Laurie is always swapping books with her other friends, so she can usually bring something over to Mabel.
But she can't do the other things since she stopped driving. She can't go to her bridge club or go to church. She stopped driving of her own accord and said it was time. Then she sold the car, "I don't need it anymore." Mabel is decisive and she rarely complains. I've taken her shopping many times in the past two years, almost every week. The bank is next store to the grocery store, so she goes in there to deposit her social security check and also to deposit the rent the collects from the apartments she owns. She's very old, but she's not poor, just tight. Good for her.. She supports Trump. She didn't volunteer that but I asked and she told me. So why do you support Trump, I asked her. She said, because he lowered my taxes. Well, I told her I don't support Trump and we left it at that.
Her late husband Norville built the house she lives in more than fifty years ago. It was all country on Veronica Springs Road back then, and their house was the first one built. Norville liked building houses and he was good at it, Mabel said, so he went into that business and did well at it.
She grew up in Montana, the sixth of eleven children and rode a horse to school, and it didn't matter how cold it was, riding that horse. Her ten siblings have all passed away, but she stays in touch with several nieces and nephews.
Now she is in the nursing home nearby and the house is empty. They take good care of her at the home and she likes it there. It is clean and comfortable and they bring her dinner and she can read. She doesn't seem to be making plans to go back home, or to get to a hundred years of age. Laurie says Mabel is getting ready to meet God, although no one, not even Mabel, gets to decide when that happens.
Merry Christmas and Medicare for All. Family and friends are all happy and accounted for although everybody is moving around, like my older brother Tom -- he is up in the Bay area visiting his daughter and two grandsons, He returns home, to Sierra Madre on Monday the 23rd. Sierra Madre is east of Pasadena. Then, on Christmas day, Tom and his life partner Marti go to Playa del Rey to visit her daughter and a whole bunch of her relatives. Playa Del Ray, is just a hop to to Venice which is where my sister Carolyn lives. So Tom and Marti will stop off to visit Carolyn at her lovely home. And Eugene, my son, the librarian, will be at Carolyn's house too, along with his new girl friend Rachel, who is in town to meet our family, Actually she's coming to spend time with Eugene, but that includes some family time. I could fill several pages of all the comings and goings but it is all good and we are all happy. And we say Merry Christmas and Medicare for All.
The Impeachment. You hoped we could get through this issue of Frog Hospital without bringing up the impeachment. Sorry, the news is the news, and tomorrow is the vote and the fate of the nation will be decided. The impeachment is important and necessary. I lend my courage and strength to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She is right and true in this regard. Take a deep breath everybody, and we can get through all this.
Mail Manager Needed at Frog Hospital. There is work, and compensation, for a young person willing to assist me in mail management, like setting this up in MailChimp and other new techie things. Let's give Frog Hospital a professional look. Let's expand the mailing list and make it opt in. Let's increase the revenue stream --- You did know this is a business we're running here. Did I ever say it was a non-profit? But I need help with this.
Merry Christmas and Medicare for All,
Fred
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